Grantees - Governor's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA)
Grants and Contracts - 2007-2008
Seventeen (17) projects were awarded Governor's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Grants for project year 2007-08. These projects are implementing 13 models of evidence-based programs in 14 different Virginia localities (see map on right). The grantees' projects include:
- Nine (9) new projects are implementing evidence-based programs addressing the needs of youth who need special services.
- One new project is implementing an evidence-based program addressing a general middle school population.
- Four (4) communities were awarded funding to conduct community prevention needs assessments.
- Three (3) projects in their second and third years of operation were awarded continuation funding.
| Recipient | Localities Served | Project Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category One | |||
| Presbyterian Community Center | City of Roanoke | Across Ages is a model program that impacts substance use, violence, and truancy in fourth through eighth graders. This program benefits 30 students at high-risk, having been identified as needing special services by mental health counselors working in three of Roanoke’s inner-city after-school centers. Across Ages builds youths’ strengths through service learning, parent education and mentoring. Staff is being trained to implement the life skills curriculum by the program originator. Outcomes studied will include community bonding, pro-social involvement in the family, attitudes toward drug use, 30-day past use of substances, violence, truancy and academic achievement. | $50,000.00 |
| Montgomery County Public Schools | Montgomery County | Project SUCCESS is being implemented to prevent and reduce substance abuse among all Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students who attend Independence Secondary School and Rivendell, two district programs that provide an alternative to out-of-school suspension for MCPS secondary students. The program places a specific focus on those students who have been suspended for a first-time violation of the district’s drug and alcohol policy. MCPS, in collaboration with New River Valley Community Services, is implementing Project SUCCESS, a CSAP model prevention program designed for use with alternative school students. | $46,792.00 |
| Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare | City of Roanoke | Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, Office of Youth & Community Development is partnering with the City of Roanoke Department of Juvenile Justice Services, Youth Haven program to provide research-based substance abuse education and anger management to youth, ages 12 to 17, that are being diverted from the court system. The goal is to reduce by 9% first-time and repeat offenders. To reach this goal, it is expected that participants will reduce violent and substance abuse offenses, decrease school suspensions, exhibit appropriate emotional responses, reduce 30-day substance abuse, and increase participant and family satisfaction in the programs that the youth attend. | $32,611.00 |
| Pulaski County Public Schools | Pulaski County | Positive Action is being implemented in an alternative education setting in Pulaski County, for approximately 51 targeted youth. Students are those who opted to participate in an alternative education program instead of being suspended or expelled from school. These students are also likely to be experiencing other problems at school and in the community, such as disruptive behavior, violence, poor academic achievement, low attachment to school/community, and poor self-concept. Without this prevention programming and alternative to suspension, these students may be destined to develop more high-risk behaviors. | $46,861.00 |
| Medical Home Plus | VPI programs in locations throughout the city of Richmond | Five hundred and forty children are learning social skills to prepare them to make healthy choices for a lifetime by participating in Al’s Pals. Thirty early childhood teachers from the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) are attending training conducted by Wingspan, developers of Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices, a SAMHSA model program. Teachers are implementing this curriculum by delivering 46 15-minunte lessons during the 2007/2008 school year. Pre- and post- evaluations of child social skills will determine effectiveness of the intervention. On-site observations will offer support and help to ensure program fidelity. | $48,950.00 |
| BBBS of Harrisonburg & Rockingham Counties | City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County | Many Hispanic youth in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are at risk for drug and alcohol use, delinquent behavior, and gang involvement. Theirs is a vastly under-served population in need of additional resources. Big Brothers Big Sisters matches 60 at-risk Hispanic youth in one-to-one mentoring relationships with adults through a community-based mentoring program. Their goal is to improve participants’ confidence, competence, and caring (including avoidance of delinquency and substance use). Mentors receive ongoing support and training on how to support Hispanic youth and to positively influence and reinforce appropriate messages about alcohol, tobacco, and drug through their relationships with youth. | $50,000.00 |
| Children, Youth & Families - Charlottesville | City of Charlottesville | STAR Kids Educators from Children, Youth & Family Services (CYFS) present Al’s Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices, a comprehensive substance abuse and violence prevention program designed for children ages 3 to 8. The curriculum is designed to develop children’s personal, social and emotional skills. The sessions develop increasingly complex social skills necessary for peaceful problem solving, impulse control, positive relationships and resistance to tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. Classroom teachers learn pedagogical approaches designed to build protective factors in the classroom environment and to help children practice, strengthen and generalize these skills throughout the day. | $31,150.00 |
| Grayson County Public Schools | Grayson County | The Grayson County Public Schools Positive Action Suspension Alternative Program targets students who would otherwise be out of school. Instead of serving suspension, participating students attend an intensive five-day Positive Action program in an alternative setting, which incorporates the student’s regular academic curriculum. The program focuses on educating and motivating students to perform positive actions that lead to success and happiness. The expected outcome of implementing this program is the reduction of problem behaviors and suspensions, the improvement of academic achievement, decision-making and goal-setting skills in the targeted youth. | $24,810.00 |
| Halifax County Public Schools | Halifax County | Halifax County Public Schools is implementing the research-based student assistance program, Project SUCCESS in an alternative education setting. The program reaches all students in grades 7-12. Project SUCCESS is a prevention/early intervention program which assesses student drug use and provides prevention education activities, individual and group counseling, problem identification and referral services. | $29,328.00 |
| Category Two | |||
| New River Valley Community Services Board | Town of Radford | Say It Straight is a communication skills program developed to prevent destructive behaviors such as violence and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. At the same time, it promotes self-awareness, personal and social responsibility, self-esteem, constructive decision making, positive relationships and improved communication. In addition, the program has been shown to decrease involvement with the juvenile justice system for participants who show fewer incidences of violence-related school suspensions. A prevention specialist hired through New River Valley Community Services is implementing the program during the 2007-2008 school year at Dalton Intermediate School in Radford, VA. | $36,359.00 |
| Category Three | |||
| Orange County | Orange County | This needs assessment addresses the needs of the county’s youth population, assessing high-risk behaviors, protective factors and the views of parents, professionals and the community regarding youth behaviors and needs. The process includes surveys and a public forum open to both youth and adults. | $14,480.00 |
| Warren County Community Health Coalition | Warren County | Warren County Community Health Coalition (WCCHC), the substance abuse prevention coalition for Warren County (including the Town of Front Royal) is continuing its efforts to reduce adolescent substance use. Current and reliable data showing the state of substance abuse and other related behaviors in the community will be obtained with a thorough needs assessment for the region. WCCHC is in the midst of conducting a comprehensive Needs Assessment, but must update their PRIDE Survey completed in 2003) to complete the data to competitively seek and secure grant funds for their programs. | $14,870.00 |
| Hampton-Newport News CSB | City of Newport News | The Newport News Community Needs Assessment Project is designed to implement a youth risk behavior survey within the public schools, juvenile detention facility and other private schools, as are available. The survey data are one component of a comprehensive citywide needs assessment which includes social indicator data and resources analysis. The project will compile and disseminate this data throughout the community to facilitate prevention program planning. | $14,790.00 |
| Page County Public Schools | Page County and Towns of Luray, Shenandoah and Stanley | Page Alliance for Community Action and Page County Public Schools are conducting a comprehensive needs assessment to gather current data showing the state of youth substance abuse and other related behaviors. Previous needs assessments in this jurisdiction were never comprehensive. Therefore, the data is deemed unreliable and must be updated to continue to be competitive in seeking and securing grant funds for researched-based programs. | $13,077.00 |
| Category Four | |||
| Child & Family Services of Eastern VA | Cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake | Child & Family Services of Eastern Virginia continues to offer the FAST (Families & Schools Together) program in collaboration with three elementary schools located in Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. FAST is a national model prevention program for at-risk children and families that has been proven to reduce risk factors and strengthen protective factors associated with substance abuse and violence. FAST is an 8-week program in which whole families participate in research-based group activities aimed at enhancing family functioning, improving child behavior, and decreasing stress and isolation. The 8-week sessions are followed by monthly support meetings called FASTWORKS. | $25,000.00 |
| University of Virginia | Albemarle County | This successful collaborative project between the Youth Violence Project of the University of Virginia and Albemarle County Schools is continuing the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program for its third year at Burley Middle school, where it serves as a model for other middle schools in Albemarle County. The Olweus Program is a CSAP-recognized model program that involves school-wide, classroom-level, and individual-level interventions to achieve the goal of reducing bullying. | $24,837.00 |
| Roanoke City Public Schools | City of Roanoke | Roanoke City Schools’ Leadership and Resiliency Program is reaching 30 high-risk youth in 2007 – 2008. The program is designed to enhance the students’ community bonding and healthy beliefs, improve the risk factors of low commitment to school, and address negative identity and low social competency in order to reduce substance use, disciplinary problems and school failure. Tenth and eleventh graders attending Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy are participating in weekly small group life skill sessions, semi-monthly service learning projects and monthly career exploration/adventure trips. Participating staff has been trained in replicating the program model. | $25,800.00 |